Hot Shots Men of Fire #2 - Hot as Sin - Bella Andre Page 0,30
her hostage.
Instead, he felt numb. From top to bottom, inside and out. He barely even saw the girl, his mind clouded with visions of his brother lying cold and stiff beneath a white sheet.
“What do you want me to do with her?”
He turned to Mickey, a brawny but simple man he’d hired a handful of times when he felt that he was entering a potentially dangerous situation. Early on in the business, he’d learned that for the right amount of money, Mickey would do whatever needed to be done, no questions asked.
But he needed sleep in order to think straight. He’d simply keep the girl locked up until he fleshed out his plan.
“Just watch her. Make sure she stays put.”
Mickey stepped closer, looked in the closet. He smiled, revealing a lack of good dentistry. “She’s pretty.”
“Don’t touch her.” The man’s round face fell with disappointment and he amended, “Not yet.”
He didn’t want Mickey to be too rough with the girl before Dianna was here to witness it. He almost smiled at the image of the rich, blond TV star bitch being forced to watch the brute sodomize her sister.
Fortunately, he thought as he went to get some sleep, it wouldn’t be long before both he and Mickey got exactly what they wanted. Mickey could have the girl.
And he’d have his revenge.
CHAPTER SEVEN
DIANNA HEARD someone say, “Take deep, slow breaths,” and realized Sam was counseling her in a gentle voice as she stood in the comforting circle of his arms.
It was the very last place she’d ever expected to find herself.
“You need to sit down.”
She wanted to race straight out of the hospital room to search for April, but he was right. She’d be no good to April until she calmed down and came up with a clearheaded plan.
Sam helped her back onto the bed and covered her legs with a blanket, then got her a cup of water and made her drink it.
Her mouth was dry despite the water. “I’m scared, Sam.”
In her early years at the TV station, she’d taken night classes in elocution, learning to keep her voice even and moderated. She barely recognized this squeaking anxious woman talking to Sam as herself.
“Where is she? What did she say?”
“Some guy grabbed her, but she got away and was calling from a gas station.”
“Did she tell you which one?”
Her hands began to shake. She might have created an amazing career and bank account for herself during the past ten years, but even as a broke eighteen-year-old overwhelmed by the crowded city streets of San Francisco, she’d never been this frightened. This freaked out.
“The line went dead before she gave me any other details. Oh God, who could have grabbed her? And what if he’s hurting her right now?”
“You can’t let yourself think like that. I promise you, we’re going to find her.”
Relief flooded through her, even though he was only trying to make her feel better.
“I’m going to need you to tell me everything you can about April, past and present, so that I can help you figure this out.”
Dianna was afraid that every additional second that ticked by could have terrible consequences for her sister. But at the same time she knew she had to think through the situation as calmly as possible. Thank God Sam was here to help her.
With everyone else, she’d always felt that she’d had to gloss over her problems with April. For so long, she’d been afraid of the press picking up the story and running with it and she hadn’t wanted to give away any potentially damaging information. Not to her various boyfriends over the years. Not even to her close girlfriends.
But Sam was different, wasn’t he? After all, he could have sold her story a long time ago, told everyone about her trailer park roots, about her drunk mother, but he hadn’t. It was safe to come clean with him.
“April and I have problems. She hates all of my rules. She says I’m too strict. I’m pretty sure she moved to Colorado to get away from me.” Her tongue felt like dry leather inside her mouth and she took another sip of water before continuing. “I saw her last night at a café in Vail for the first time in a couple of months, but I was too hard on her and she stormed out.”
Sam didn’t look surprised by anything she was saying.
Did he really know her that well? Did he still know her better than anyone else ever had—or ever